'The Woman in White' by Wilkie Collins

 The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins (4.0)

I guess a few very hot days allows one to lay around and read a 500+ page book quite quickly – or I was reading the first ‘sensational’ novel written in the 1800’s and it was very compelling. Mr. Collins, a friend of Charles Dickens, also wrote of the rich and poor but put them in a scandalous plot which is complicated, full of devious characters, and fraught with fear.  ‘The Woman in White’ is considered one of the first ‘page-turners’. This book is to be enjoyed with no spoilers, so I will just say expect to be worried for the safety of several women at the hands of what may or may not be conniving scoundrels. My main complaint is that while the author manages to highlight the precarious existence woman of the time had (no voice except for one’s father, husband or guardian), and wrote one of the strongest woman characters of the time, he often put ridiculous words in her mind that only a man of that time would write: ‘oh well, I’m just a silly woman’. It’s not to be mistaken for Dickensian excellence, but it does make for a nail-biting experience. It’s rare for me to put a book down due to concern for where it might be going!